life in death

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Monthly Archives: June 2009

Some of you know that we’ve been waiting on some government cheese for the last couple months (EI). Well it finally went through, now we can pay some rent. Yeah!

I’ve lost an entire layer of skin since coming back from South Carolina, dang.

Christina and I are settling into our new neighbourhood more and more. Yesterday was the big Pride Parade so it was pretty cool to see so many people out and about. The parade wasn’t as lewd as I thought it might be which was a nice surprise. Also, kudos to the city of Toronto. Yonge Street was an absolute mess last evening. Garbage just everywhere. However, the city had folks out working throughout the night and this morning Yonge was spotless. Nice.

I’m heading over to Europe from August 1-22. I need to raise some funds so I’ll be posting a seperate write up on that with more info for anyone that might want to help me out with that.

Whelp, time to jump on that bike and do some more exploring. Oh, also, Christina is getting loads of shifts at her job and had an interview last week for a full time position, so we’re hoping that works out for her!

Christina and I, along with a couple other friends, just got back from South Carolina. We were originally headed for Virginia Beach but due to bad weather we made a last minute adjustment to our route and headed a little further south. I drove directly there, through the night, all 15 hours. The surprising thing was, I wasn’t even tired. Anyways, we camped out in Myrtle Beach so that was pretty fun. The beach was nice, however it was a little hot for my liking. In triple diget heat, even sunscreen doesn’t work! The highlight for me was surfing. On the Saturday morning we headed to a little town south of Myrtle Beach called Garden City and found a dope little surf shop where we got connected with a lesson. The waves were only 2-3 feet but it was fun to learn none-the-less.

We’re also starting to get a little more connected in various communities here in the city. We hung out with some people our age from church last night, so it was cool to meet some more people. Also, I’m hoping to get involved in another community close by, more on that later.

It’s Pride Week here in Toronto. It’s something I used to always hear about from the suburbs but living on the outskirts of the homosexual community here in the city provides a different perspective. We’re looking forward to hanging out during the big parade on Sunday and meeting new people. There’s something about the parade that makes me feel uncomfortable, to be honest. I’ve always seen the parade as scantily clad men squirting people with water guns. Maybe that’s generalization but I’m being honest, and generally, that’s what I’ve seen on news splices. I’m hoping that being there this year will change my perspective. I also feel like, because of our proximity, I’d like to be more connected with the homosexual community here in the city, so hopefully we make some new friends.

That’s about all for now. I haven’t written much in the way of theology lately, maybe that’s because we’ve been too busy trying to discover our new community. Oh, and we’ve been watching lot’s of Lost lately, we’re about midway through season 3. Good stuff. John just blew up the submarine, that was cool. I still don’t really know what’s up with the others yet, or that black smoke monster, whatever it is. So many questions!

I’m currently sitting in a small locally-owned coffee shop on George St. in Peterborough. We arrived here yesterday because Christina is taking a non-violent restraint course @ the local college. I’ve been to Peterborough once before, and that was for a basketball game, so I didn’t see much of the city. Peterborough is pretty dang sweet though. George St. is a tight little place littered with local shops and restaurants. Last night Christina and I had a pint in a place called Hot Belly Mama’s. They brew 4 or 5 of their own beers on site. I had a pint of their Seasonal Ale and their dark ale that is named after Oscar Wilde. Both were delicious. Between all of the local enterprise, the community feel and the proximity to the Trent-Severn waterway, Peterborough strikes me as a pretty sweet place to reside (plus, as I drove past the GE headquarters I was pretty sure I recognized it from Tommy Boy; I believe it was the scene for Big Tom’s factory).

Recently I’ve taken up running again. I used to play soccer when I was a bit younger and because of that I developed a pretty decent stamina that got me into running. Anyways, it’s been a while since I was anything of a committed runner, but I went for a run the other day and discovered that apparently you can loose your fitness (I went out for a 3.8 km* run, and found that I only lasted about 3km before I was ready to K.O.). It also looks like I’m going to be heading out to Prague/Paris/Lille again this August. It doesn’t look like Christina is going to be able to make which sucks, but distance makes the heart grow fonder, isn’t that what they say? We’re going on a little road trip this coming week. We’re driving down to Virginia Beach with Kate and Jordan for a little camping/surfing extravaganza. We’re camping out at First Landing State Park and Jordan and I will both be trying to learn how to surf for the first time. Just a couple days on the beach! Hmm, what else is new? I started reading Chesterton’s ‘Orthodoxy’ the other day and am seeing what I’ve been missing. One of my favourite quotes thus far is “I did try to found a heresy of my own; and when I had put the last touches to it, I discovered that it was orthodoxy.” Christina has been applying to a bunch of job opportunities and is hoping to score something full-time in the near future. Also, one more note about personal accomplishments, we’ve really only used the car thus far for Christina to get to work in Newmarket. We’ve been walking everywhere (I’ve also been biking). We haven’t even had to use the TTC yet, crazy. Oh, one more thing, on Thursday night I saw the fastest man in the world run the 100m live! I peeked through the fence instead of paying the $150 for a ticket.

Anyways, that aside, here’s a bunch of stuff I found online that I thought was interesting:

Banksy is so dope. His story is pretty cool rising from being a graffiti artist on the streets of Bristol and being chased by the cops and city council to taking over the Bristol museum! Here’s the video.

The internet hasn’t always been around, you know that right? There was, believe it or not, at one point in time, no such thing existing as this “internet”. What the hell did everyone do? No online poker. No internet dating. No internet shopping. No games. Wow. People must have had to actually play poker, actually date, actually shop, and actually play games. Weird.

Since moving Christina and I have had no internet. And, interestingly enough, it’s been amazing. We are already spending more time together. Usually, in the evenings after a day at work Christina would just want to relax and watch TV which would mean that I would head over to the computer and play settlers because, damn, you know I can’t handle the Bachelorette. Those would be our evenings. TV. Internet. No actual meaningful interaction. But tonight was different. Christina came home from a day of work and since we don’t have cable, and we don’t have the internet, we sat down and had a real meal with each other. Then we went for a lovely walk down to Queen’s Park where there was an international drum festival on. We hung out in a park with a bunch of hippies for a while. Then we headed westward and continued on our walk around our new digs. Now, she’s watching an episode of Lost (we rented season 1, amazing), and I’m down at Starbucks checking the email and facebook. You know how it is.

See, that’s the sweet thing. We have 2 hours of free internet a day down at Starbucks. This means if we ever do need to check the internet every few days or so, we can run down here and do it for free.

So that’s that. If you want a better relationship with people, a better actual relationship with people, and not just a romantic relationship, any kind of relationship, then take some time away from the screen. Because the interent hasn’t always been around, you know that right?

We’ve arrived! I remember a couple months ago when we found out we got an apartment @ Yonge/Charles in Toronto. Now, it’s the day after and I’m sitting in a coffee shop across the road using their free internet. Yesterday was the big move. Shout outs and thanks to Nathan, Matt, Ryan, Katelyn and our parents for picking up trucks and helping us move. The day went super smooth, besides getting a parking ticket, dang city. Thankfully, most of our getting around will be by self-propulsion (i.e. walking and biking). Our neighbourhood is sweet. Just south of Bloor on Yonge, everything is right there and there is loads of people which is cool. We just have a small 1 bdrm and I’ll put some pictures up when we get our internet sorted out. Another bonus about our place, about a 10 minute walk to my college, nice! Anyways, just a little shout to let you know we’ve arrived. Now I’m going to hop on my bike and head down to MEC. PEACE!

So much of Christendom (note: Christendom, not Christianty, although some may be true of the latter as well) pisses me off. So much shit. How much time and money is spent to “further the kingdom”? And by “further the kingdom” I mean pay the salary of a bunch of pastors, build massive buildings and deck said buildings out in high tech gear. Damn, when are we going to learn that fancy buildings can’t save anyone?

The martyrdom of St. Ignatius.

"...My birth pangs are at hand. Bear with me, my brothers. Do not hinder me from living: do not wish for my death...Allow me to receive the pure light; when I arrive there I shall be a real man." - S. Ignatius on his way to his martyrdom in Rome.